Access your Health Records

NHS Grampian complies fully with the provisions and obligations of the Data Protection Act 1998 in storing and processing your information. The purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 legislation is to protect people's rights and confidentiality in relation to how information about them is handled.

Information about keeping personal health information secure and confidential is available on the NHS inform website.

In NHS Grampian requests to see health records are handled by our Information Governance Team. If you would like to see your health records, or if you have any query relating to your health records, please contact the Information Governance Team at:

When you attend hospital, information about you is recorded in manual files and on computer. Patients' health records are an important source of information. Some use may be made of this information for audit and management studies to help improve how we deliver services, to improve the way we treat people or to help improve the health of the general public. We may be undertaking studies to assess the frequency or behaviour of certain diseases. Wherever possible, your personal details will be removed. We take great care to ensure that no patient can be identified. You may also be approached, and asked to be involved in teaching sessions to help train student doctors, or to take part in research studies. Staff should ask you for your agreement to this.

We hope you will accept that such work is very important for advancing medical knowledge. We therefore ask you to accept that your health records may be used in this way.

If you do not agree to this, it will not affect the healthcare you receive.

If you are concerned about your information being shared for the purposes of medical training and research, you can object by writing to the Health Records Manager:

If you do so, your record will be marked and it will not be made available for audit, research or other studies without your express consent. Before reaching such a decision, you may find it helpful to discuss the matter with those responsible for your hospital care.

Sometimes the law allows the NHS to share your information without your permission, for example to notify of an infectious disease.